Date: 04-07-2008
Microsoft has decided to extend Windows XP’s life for an additional two years, applicable only for a specific category of low-cost PCs. The company is planning to wind up sales of the older operating system by June of this year, although many people still prefer Windows XP to its successor, Windows Vista. According to media sources, the company also plans to release its next version of the Windows operating system, Windows 7, three years after Vista’s release in 2007. Microsoft had already extended the Windows XP sales deadline once, moving it to June rather than the January 2008 deadline. Microsoft’s recent extension of the deadline had effectively become unavoidable, because cheap PCs with low hardware specifications are not able to run Windows Vista. Windows Vista requires at least a 1 GHz processor, 1 GB of memory, and a 40 GB hard drive, a combination which is impossible to bundle into a low-cost PC.
